Observations:
Today in East Greenwich I observed a lecture on acceleration. While my CT went through a power point presentation, students filled in scaffolded notes. She circulated the classroom and gave the class lots of opportunity to participate. She operated the power point vie remote which allowed her to flow freely through the classroom. This brought chatter to a minimum, kept kids attentive, and allowed opportunities for formative assessment. As the lecture came to a close the class worked on few practice problems which they solved individually, wet over as a class, and moved on to the next problem. The next class carried on in a similar way as this one, accept the get the same lecture I had seen a week earlier, as this class was behind.
Reflection:
My CT in EG has a knack for bombarding students with questions throughout the note taking portion of the class. She rarely strings together more than two sentences with out posing a question to the class. The most interesting part about this is that her questions will sometimes only relate to the topic at hand loosely. For example during the lecture on velocity, noted that wind speed is important when firefighters are trying to control a wild fire. She then went on to causes of wild fires and asked the class if they knew some causes of wild fires. Many hands went up, and all contributions were pertinent to the question. One student even had a first hand experience with a wild fire where he was forced to evacuate his home. It is these kind of side bars that will help students remember why they are studying velocity. The discussion closed with a quick fun fact. Students were surprised to hear just what percentage of wild fires are caused by humans. She also went into the speed of sound and the speed of light and how you can estimate how far away lightning strikes by comparing the two velocities. While many people know you can count the time between the flash and the sound to make this estimate, she broke down the actual numbers to make it clear to students why that method works. This is an example of how she gets students to not just take things at face value and to explore why things work the way they do. Occasionally a student may make a claim that she will have them refute. Generally this results in an opportunity for a bonus point. Students are encouraged to answer tough questions on their own time and bring in evidence for extra credit. There is anobvious variation in the types of questions she asks the class. She has one class with lower-level students ranging from freshman to senior. In these classes the questions are geared towards what she knows they know. While these are often thought provoking questions, she may pose a question, field a response, and complete the idea on her own. In any case this is all in an effort to get the students to take their thinking to the next step. I love the way she uses questions to keep the students on their toes and interested in the material. Every other sentence out of her mouth relates a science topic to a real life application, which I think makes it evident to students not only how import science is to their every day life, but how important it is to ask questions and seek answers. It is for this reason I would like to be prepared with questions of interest for my students.
Today in East Greenwich I observed a lecture on acceleration. While my CT went through a power point presentation, students filled in scaffolded notes. She circulated the classroom and gave the class lots of opportunity to participate. She operated the power point vie remote which allowed her to flow freely through the classroom. This brought chatter to a minimum, kept kids attentive, and allowed opportunities for formative assessment. As the lecture came to a close the class worked on few practice problems which they solved individually, wet over as a class, and moved on to the next problem. The next class carried on in a similar way as this one, accept the get the same lecture I had seen a week earlier, as this class was behind.
Reflection:
My CT in EG has a knack for bombarding students with questions throughout the note taking portion of the class. She rarely strings together more than two sentences with out posing a question to the class. The most interesting part about this is that her questions will sometimes only relate to the topic at hand loosely. For example during the lecture on velocity, noted that wind speed is important when firefighters are trying to control a wild fire. She then went on to causes of wild fires and asked the class if they knew some causes of wild fires. Many hands went up, and all contributions were pertinent to the question. One student even had a first hand experience with a wild fire where he was forced to evacuate his home. It is these kind of side bars that will help students remember why they are studying velocity. The discussion closed with a quick fun fact. Students were surprised to hear just what percentage of wild fires are caused by humans. She also went into the speed of sound and the speed of light and how you can estimate how far away lightning strikes by comparing the two velocities. While many people know you can count the time between the flash and the sound to make this estimate, she broke down the actual numbers to make it clear to students why that method works. This is an example of how she gets students to not just take things at face value and to explore why things work the way they do. Occasionally a student may make a claim that she will have them refute. Generally this results in an opportunity for a bonus point. Students are encouraged to answer tough questions on their own time and bring in evidence for extra credit. There is anobvious variation in the types of questions she asks the class. She has one class with lower-level students ranging from freshman to senior. In these classes the questions are geared towards what she knows they know. While these are often thought provoking questions, she may pose a question, field a response, and complete the idea on her own. In any case this is all in an effort to get the students to take their thinking to the next step. I love the way she uses questions to keep the students on their toes and interested in the material. Every other sentence out of her mouth relates a science topic to a real life application, which I think makes it evident to students not only how import science is to their every day life, but how important it is to ask questions and seek answers. It is for this reason I would like to be prepared with questions of interest for my students.